


Walking in a winter wonderland

by ohemgeeitscoley



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Holidays, I probably owe your dentist money at this point, Look one day I will write angst and it will be painful and today is not that day, Meet-Cute, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27887314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohemgeeitscoley/pseuds/ohemgeeitscoley
Summary: Rey is looking forward to going to see the Christmas lights at Winter Wonderland by herself.  Really, she is. But she also isn't complaining when a not-so-lucky moment leads her to meeting Ben Solo soon after arriving.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 22
Kudos: 141





	Walking in a winter wonderland

**Author's Note:**

> My Nano goal was to write 30 1k Christmas/holiday fics. I failed massively. But I did manage to get a few done! This was the first one I wrote and I really loved writing it. I hope you guys enjoy.

The sign above the entry to the park is over the top big and cheesy. The words “Winter Wonderland” are far too big and bright, and it's everything Rey was hoping to see. The words are lit up in colorful bulbs, a chaotic mix of blues and whites. There's giant snowflakes next to the words with constantly lit blue lights making up the general shape and pulsating white lights along the edges that help make it appear like the flakes are falling. 

Rey zips her puffy vest up higher as she walks under the sign. It's not too cold considering that it's the beginning of December, but despite living somewhere snow was expected every year, Rey's body hasn't adjusted from her childhood spent in the desert. She knows she probably should have put on a real jacket and not just layered a vest over a long sleeve thermal, but she also didn't want to seem like an outsider. Even just a quick look at the crowd confirms Rey's worry. There's a few kids in their thick winter coats, but most of the adults are in light jackets or just long sleeve shirts.

Which is ridiculous, Rey thinks, as she walks around an icy puddle. 

Rubbing her hands together, Rey decides that the first place she is going to try and find is a drink stand for some hot cocoa. That will at least help with the cold.

Rey can't help but smile as she takes in all of the lights once she turns the corner and sees the main street laid out in front of her. The shops are all decorated and lit up with an assortment of lights. The street lights are cast iron and have garland wrapped around them. There's fake snow piled on what would usually be the green spaces between the shops. 

It's like something out of a fairytale and it's just what she needs.

She's distracted by the lights and the sounds of Christmas music floating across the street and is taken by surprise when her feet slide on a patch of ice. 

"Ah," Rey yelps, holding her hands up as she completely loses balance and begins to fall backwards.

"Whoa," a deep voice says from behind her. 

Rey tightens her body, bracing for impact onto the cement, but instead she feels hands press against her, stopping her from falling.

"They should put signs out about the ice," the same voice says as he helps her stand back up. "They're just asking to be sued."

Rey laughs, her face heating up while she brushes her hands against her jeans. The man removes his hands from where they were resting on her waist and Rey misses their warmth almost instantly.

Rey turns around, a shy smile on her face as she takes in the man that saved her from the embarrassing fall. 

He is absolutely gorgeous. Breathtakingly gorgeous, if she's being honest.

The first thing she notices is his size. He's tall and broad. The dark gray jacket he's wearing looks like it's almost too small with how tight it's stretched across his chest. He has dark, wavy black hair that goes down to almost his chin.

His eyes are warm, the deep brown welcoming as she looks up at him. His teeth are a little crooked, but Rey feels a little breathless at the smile he is giving her.

"Thank you," Rey finally says, her smile growing. "You saved me from making an absolute fool of myself."

"Of course," he replies, holding out his gloved hand. "I'm Ben."

"Rey," she automatically responds, placing her hand in his and shaking it. "It's nice to meet you, Ben."

"You too, Rey," Ben says, his hand still covering hers.

Rey likes the way her name sounds from his lips. She thinks she would be okay with hearing him saying it again a million different times. 

Rey gives her head a tiny shake, pulling her hand back. She's not sure quite what's gotten into her or what she is supposed to do next. Butterflies seem to have settled in her stomach. 

To say it's been awhile since Rey felt such an instant attraction to someone else would be an understatement. 

Rey's never been good at the next part. How does one go about asking a stranger to change their plans and to spend the night with them instead? Rey plays out scenario after scenario in her head of how that conversation might go, but she's too nervous to try any of them.

She's been quiet too long, she knows that. It's not the best first impression to almost fall on one's ass and then just gawk like an idiot at the handsome guy who saved you. 

Ben is still looking at her, but his face is harder to read now and he's put his hands inside of his coat pockets.

"Right," Rey breathes out, sticking her thumb up and pointing behind her. "Well I should be going, I'm sorry if I delayed your night at—"

"Can I buy you a drink?" Ben asks, interrupting the end of Rey's sentence. "You aren't delaying my night, I promise," he adds on in a rush after another second passes. "But I might be delaying yours. I apologize. You probably are meeting people here and I just—"

"I'm not," Rey interrupts him, laughing at the end. "My friends aren't really into Christmas. Or walking around in the cold."

"Neither are mine. But I really like the lights," Ben admits, a small, shy smile back on his face. "Your hands are feeling," he points out, nodding down at her hands. "I could feel how cold they are through my gloves."

Rey lifts one of her hands up and presses her fingers to her cheek. She winces when she feels just how cold her hands are against her skin. "I didn't want to wear gloves," Rey laughs, shoving her hands into the pockets of her vest. "I moved up here for grad school. I'm from Arizona. You're one of the only sensible adults I've seen tonight wearing actual winter clothes. My friends like to tease me for it. So I just, I guess, I just try to blend in."

"You slipped on ice, Rey," Ben laughs, the sound deep and breathy. He laughs with his whole body, his shoulders shaking a bit. "I think you can safely wear gloves without fear of judgment when there's actually frozen water on the ground."

Rey shrugs. "I'll try to remember that next time." She glances back up at him, slightly bouncing on her toes. "You said something about getting a drink? I was actually on my way to find hot chocolate when I slipped. I'd love to have company."

"The shop over there has the best peppermint hot chocolate," Ben says, pointing to somewhere behind Rey.

Rey turns her head, to see that Ben is pointing toward a tiny shop at the end of the main street. 

"Perfect," Rey grins, turning the rest of her body so that she's facing the right way to walk toward the shop. "Let’s go get some."

Rey debates keeping her hands in her pockets once they start walking, but finally settles on pulling them out. She's already almost fallen once and she really doesn't want to risk another fall on the same night.

"So, you're in grad school?" Ben asks.

"Yeah," Rey answers, glancing over at him for a second. His nose is a little red from the cold. "One more semester to go actually. I can't wait to be done."

"That's how I felt in law school."

Rey looks at him again, taking in the shiny black shoes, dress pants and dark peacock. She remembers the way his leather gloves had felt when she shook his hand. Him being a lawyer made sense.

"Three, maybe, four years?" Ben scrunches his nose while he thinks. "If I'm being honest, it all kind of blurs together without a countdown to whatever is supposed to come next."

The walk a little bit longer in silence, Rey takes in all of the different shops that they pass. One store is selling homemade ornaments, another different versions of advent calendars. Each shop seems to have its own take on decorations, but there's an overall cohesiveness between them to make it work.

Rey's about to point out the little chocolate shop that they are approaching, with the cute reindeer just to the side of the front door. The reindeer is in a rather dreadfully green and red Christmas sweater, with little gold bells scattered all of the cloth. There's a half opened box of chocolates in its mouth and garland wrapped around its neck like a scarf. 

It's wonderful. 

Before she can get the words out though, she feels Ben's hand wrap around hers. She pauses, turning to face him. He grabs her other hand and rubs them between his gloved hands. 

"Your hands are freezing," he explains, still rubbing his hands over hers.

It's nice, the way his hands feel holding on to hers. 

"Good thing we are almost to the shop then," Rey teases, turning back around and lacing one of her hands with Ben's. She places the other one in her coat pocket. "But we probably should hold hands until we get there. You know, for warmth."

“I agree.” Ben squeezes her hand. “That’s definitely how that works.”

Rey laughs and they keep walking toward the end of the block.

“What are you in school for?” Ben asks when they are almost to the shop. 

“Mechanical engineering,” Rey answers. 

“That sounds like a lot of… math. Actually, that sounds like a lot of math.”

Rey laughs, nodding. “There’s a bit of math involved, yeah.”

“I hate math,” Ben admits, holding open the door for Rey. “It’s probably why I didn’t try to become a doctor or something.”

“You really want me to believe that you never have to do any math as a lawyer?” Rey asks, rolling her eyes as she steps inside the shop. 

There’s not a lot of people in the shop. There’s a group of teenagers sitting at a table in the back, huddled around what looks to be a board game and an elderly couple holding hands and drinking tea next to the front window.

Rey knows that the stores are required to decorate the outside of their shops, but the insides are usually a completely different story. Rey had read review onlines before coming down that most of the shops would decorate a table or a counter in front of their windows, but the remainder of the inside would be the same as usual.

The coffee shop, however, seems to take Christmas decorating to heart. There are colorful bulbs strung along the countertops and along the shelves that hold the flavored syrups. A fairly large tree is in the middle of the room, and Rey can’t imagine how much table space the owners had to give up in order to make room for it. The tree is lined with lights and popcorn strings and perfectly themed coffee related ornaments. There’s even a lit up coffee up on top of the tree, rather than a star. Boxes of various sizes are lined up under the tree in shiny wrapping paper. There’s ribbons and bows carefully placed on the presents as well.

Then there’s the train. The train tracks wrap around the tree and then continue to run along the rail that separates the seating area from the walk up counter. The train itself is tiny, but loud as the whistle goes off when it passes the main station house that’s right by Rey’s feet.

Rey turns around to smile at Ben as he finishes walking inside and closing the door.

“This place is magical,” Rey says, not thinking before she takes his hand again. “Look at the train, and the presents. God, it would take me hours to wrap a present like that.”

“I thought you might like it here.” Ben begins walking them toward the counter. “It’s one of my favorite places this time of year. They do the best job just really going for it.” 

Rey nods, still looking around at all of the tinier decorations that are out on the counters and on the shelves. Things like little statutes of reindeers and Santa Claus and other traditional holiday symbols. 

“I would say,” Rey agrees, smiling at the barista who walks out from the backroom and over to them.

She’s wearing a green and red striped sweater, with a belt cinched around her waist that has tiny silver snowflakes running across it. Her hair is swept up into the elves hat that she is wearing, that is maybe a size too big for her head. There’s just a few tendrils of blonde hair that has fallen down across her face.

“Hey Ben,” she says as she reaches the cash register. She glances curiously between Ben and Rey, looking down at where they are holding hands. “And who’s this?”

“Kaydel,” Ben sighs and Rey can hear the edge of exacerbation in his tone. “This is Rey. Rey, this is my sister, Kaydel.”

Rey lifts her free hand in a tiny wave. "Nice to meet you."

"You too." Kaydel is practically beaming at Rey. "I didn't know you had a date tonight, Benji."

Rey blushes, tilting her head down. She's just about to tell Kaydel that they aren't on a date when Ben starts talking.

"We just met," Ben explains. "Rey slipped on some ice because someone hasn't put up any signs that the sidewalks are icy. Despite me telling someone that they are just asking to be sued."

Kaydel rolls her eyes. "I'll let dad know. You don't have to be so cranky about it."

"I actually don't know that a sign would have helped me anyways," Rey admits with a shrug. "I really just wasn't paying much attention to where I was walking. I was too distracted by all of the lights."

"Aren't they all just great?" Kaydel asks, her eyes bright. "Ben complained for days about having to put so many up. But I think it was worthwhile."

"I didn't complain that much," Ben mutters and Rey can't help but smile as she watches Ben interact with his sister. "Anyways. We came here for some peppermint hot chocolate. So maybe you could make that?"

"Make it yourself," Kaydel says as she starts walking around the counter. "I want to keep talking to Rey."

Rey laughs as she watches Ben roll his eyes. He squeezes Rey's hand one last time before letting it go. 

"I apologize now for whatever she says to you," Ben whispers loudly, laughing as Kaydel lightly smacks his arm. 

"C'mon," Kaydel says to Rey, leading her toward a table next to a table by the door. The table is next to a window that overlooks the park that's filled with different Christmas light exhibits. "This is my favorite spot. I love being able to look at all of the lights and it provides some fantastic opportunities for people watching."

Rey sits down and looks out the window. It's easy to see what Kaydel means, with such an open view of the park she can see plenty of families and groups walking around. 

"Ben told me you guys have the best peppermint hot chocolate here," Rey says, looking back over at Kaydel. "He didn't mention that he knew anyone that worked here though, so maybe his opinion is a little bit biased."

Kaydel laughs. "Our parents own the shop, actually. But the hot chocolate is the best in town. He’s not wrong about that."

Kaydel and Rey continue talking, occasionally looking out the window and coming up with silly stories about what the strangers were doing and saying.

It surprises Rey how quickly she feels comfortable around Kaydel. It's the same way she feels around Ben. Like she was supposed to meet them. 

Finally, Ben walks over to the table carrying two cups of hot chocolate in his hands. He carefully sets one of the mugs down in front of Rey.

"It's still really hot," Ben warns her while setting the other mug down in front of Kaydel. He stares at his sister while she stands up.

"It really was great to meet you, Rey. I hope to see you around more." Kaydel bends down and wraps one arm around Rey's shoulder, pulling her into a hug. "You two enjoy the rest of your date."

Neither of them bother correcting her before she leaves.

Rey lifts the mug up from the table and blows on the hot liquid. Ben sits down across from her and does the same to his drink. 

"It smells good," Rey notes, taking a deep breath and letting the smell of chocolate and peppermint wash over her. "Thank you for making it."

Rey blows on the liquid one more time before taking a drink. 

It really is delicious. The balance between the chocolate and the peppermint is perfect. The liquid is creamy and the perfect temperature. 

Rey takes another small drink before setting the mug back down. 

Ben's watching her carefully, waiting for her to say something.

"It's okay," Rey teases, tipping her head to the side. "I mean, I had one at Starbucks the other day that might have been a little better."

Ben laughs, his smile is wide and the corners of his eyes crinkle. "Maybe you'll have to take me there sometime so I can compare."

"No," Rey reaches across the table for Ben's hand. "Absolutely not. I don't think I've ever tasted a better hot chocolate in my life."

They spend the next four hours just talking. Ben tells her about his job, and his parents and how he has spent his entire life in the same city trying, and failing, to live up to the expectations of his family's name. Rey tells him about her childhood and growing up in foster homes, how excited she was when she got her scholarship and away from the desert.

"Hey guys," Kaydel's voice interrupts the story Ben is telling her of the first time he tried to help his dad set up the lights for Winter Wonderland and almost caught main street on fire. "It's closing time."

"What?" Ben asks, looking down at his watch."I had no idea. I didn't mean to take up your entire night Rey. You didn't even get to go look at the lights."

"That's okay." Rey shrugs, shaking her head in amusement. "I can always come back another night for the lights."

"I'll walk you to your car," Ben offers, holding out his hand to help Rey stand up. "It's late."

Rey gives Kaydel a small wave before she and Ben walk outside. 

"Oh wow," Rey wraps her arms low across her belly. "It is really cold out here now."

"Do you want my jacket?" Ben asks, already working on unbuttoning it before Rey even has a chance to respond.

Ben sets the jacket around Rey's shoulders and buttons it up. It's way too big on her, but it's thick and warm and it smells like Ben.

Rey leans up on her toes and presses her lips against Ben's cheek. "Thank you," she says, dropping back down on her feet. "You really didn't have to do that."

"It's not a far walk to the parking lot," Ben says, brushing a piece of stray hair back behind Rey's ear. "I think I'll be alright."

"I had a really nice time tonight," Rey tells Ben while reaching out for his hand. 

"Even if you didn't get to look at all of the lights?" Ben asks.

"We can always come back."

"We?" Ben says around a large smile. "I would like that."

Rey smiles back at him, taking in the way the blue lights from the main Winter Wonderland sign shine and reflect against his pale skin. 

"I'm free tomorrow?" Rey offers. "Unless that's too short notice. Or too soon even. When are you available? I have some final projects due next week, but I can probably find time when—"

Ben interrupts her with a kiss. His lips are soft and warm over hers. Rey's surprised at first and a little slow to react, but then she relaxes into the kiss, into the movement of his lips and the slide of his tongue against hers.

They don't make it to the car for a while. 

❄ONE YEAR LATER❄

"Whoa, there sweetheart," Ben's voice is rich and full of laughter from behind Rey, his hands easily righting her as he moves her away from the patch of ice she almost stepped on. "I swear I've never met someone who was such a magnet for ice in my life."

Rey giggles, looping her arm through Ben's. "My hero," she says, pressing a quick kiss against the underside of his jaw. "Someone really should put out some signs that the sidewalks are icy though. Otherwise, they are just asking to be sued."

Ben rolls his eyes. "We walked past seven of them."

"Oh," Rey crinkles her nose. "I told you they wouldn't do me any good. Too many lights to get distracted by."

"So, where to first?" Ben asks. "Do you want to start in the park and look at the lights, or swing by the coffee shop for some hot chocolate?"

"Hot chocolate, of course, " Rey responds, giving Ben a strange look as if he should have known her answer without asking. "It's practically a tradition."

Ben just nods, but Rey can see the way he's trying to keep a smile off of his face. 

He is definitely up to something.

Her suspicions that Ben is up to something increase when they walk into the coffee shop and his mom and dad are working behind the counter with Kaydel. 

In the year that Ben and Rey have been dating, Rey has spent countless hours at the shop with Kaydel. She's covered a few shifts when they were short staffed, and the one week Kaydel was out with the flu. Rey even knows the family recipe for the famous hot chocolate. 

But Rey has never in that time seen Han, Leia, and Kaydel working at the same time. Rey can honestly only think of a few times she's seen Leia and Han behind the counter in total and she's not sure that those times were when the store was open.

Ben helps Rey out of her jacket, hanging draping their jackets across the back of one of the chairs at the table where they had their first date. 

"Ben," Rey asks quietly when he leans down to kiss her forehead. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

Rey narrows her eyes at Ben's very awful attempt to pretend to not understand exactly what she is asking. Rey leans to the side, so that she can see behind Ben.

"Hey, Leia, Han," Rey exclaims. "What are you guys doing here?"

"I tried telling you guys Rey would think it was weird that we are all here." Kaydel whispers. Only it's Kaydel and her whisper is loud and Rey can't help but smile when she looks back at Ben.

Ben shakes his head and huffs out a small laugh. "Will you just sit down, sweetheart. I'll go make the hot chocolate."

Rey sits down, watching as Ben goes over to his family. Kaydel gives him a sheepish shrug at one point and Rey knows he is probably talking to her about her inability to whisper.

She'll tell him later that she had found the ring in their bedroom weeks ago and that she's been pretty sure he was going to propose at least half a dozen times since then.

But those moments never felt like this, and yeah, his family being there is a pretty clear give away that tonight's the night. But Rey can't find it in herself to care that she knows that when Ben walks back over with their hot chocolate he's going to propose to her.

All that she cares about is that she finally, finally gets to say yes.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi to me on [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/ohemgeeitscoley)


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